After a full house Monday, shelter-goers feel comfortable returning to their homes

By MATT COYNEHour Staff Writer

Published 4:01 pm, Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Photo: (C)2012, The Hour Newspapers, all rights reserved

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Local residents were able to use Brien Mcmahon High School as shelter during the storm and it's aftermath. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

Local residents were able to use Brien Mcmahon High School as shelter during the storm and it's aftermath. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

Photo: (C)2012, The Hour Newspapers, all rights reserved

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Local residents including Betty Beal who lives in Rowayton were able to use Brien McMahon High School as shelter during the storm and it's aftermath. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

Local residents including Betty Beal who lives in Rowayton were able to use Brien McMahon High School as shelter during the storm and it's aftermath. Hour photo / Erik Trautmann

Photo: (C)2012, The Hour Newspapers, all rights reserved

After a full house Monday, shelter-goers feel comfortable returning to their homes

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NORWALK -- The bleachers were pulled out in the Brien McMahon High School gym-turned-storm-shelter Monday night to accommodate more beds but by Tuesday morning, many of those who stayed the night felt comfortable enough to leave.

The shelter, according to volunteers, gave between 200 and 240 Norwalkers asylum from Hurricane Sandy -- enough to open the auxiliary gym -- but by 10 a.m. Tuesday, all but a handful had left.

"It was kind of a steady trickle (of people leaving)," said Beth Siegelbaum, a Red Cross volunteer working the front desk. "A lot of people are leaving with uncertainty, with their power, but no one's come back."

Siegelbaum was doing a lot more signing out than signing in when she showed up at Brien McMahon Tuesday morning. Some residents asked to keep their slots open, just in case they had to come back, but many more were content to leave for good. One family signed in, as they needed electricity to warm bottles for their infant daughter.

"We are going to see people here tonight because they don't have electricity," said Ed Holowinko, who also worked the shelter the night before. "They'll be back, but I don't anticipate we'll have a lot tonight."

By the afternoon, many were coming by asking to charge their cell phones or if the school had wireless internet available.

The scene Tuesday morning was a far cry from Monday, where slots at the shelter were filling up quickly. People streamed into the high school late into the night, with a rush at 11 p.m.

"For the most part, I thought things ran pretty smoothly," said Lisa Grant, a volunteer with the city. "The kids loaded up on snacks. I think everyone was just glad to have a place to be."

Grant, who pulled a 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift Monday, said many of those who stayed overnight left before she came back for a second 12-hour shift at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

City officials said at the evening briefing that the shelter would remain open Tuesday night and reassessed Wednesday. The Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now offices on South Main Street could be used as an alternative shelter.